Topic on Talk:Structured Discussions

I've been using Flow's bi-directional switching between VisualEditor and wikitext to get some tables posted today. It's pretty handy: Open VisualEditor and drag in a .csv file from my desktop. (That's one way to import a table in VisualEditor.) Use VisualEditor to delete irrelevant columns and rows. Flip back to the wikitext editor to set the class. Switch back to VisualEditor to set some cells to header formatting and merge a couple of cells together. Switch back to wikitext editor to get something that I can paste into the middle of a translated page. I like it.

However, at one point the switch ended with a blank page (something timed out? I couldn't replicate it) and the wikitext box is too small for editing a table that contains more than 100 cells (one line per cell).

Personally I find it annoying having to switch to wikitext before I can write my comments and have to use VE to preview it. Most of the time, when I realize I'm not typing in a wikitext field, it is already too late and the wiki syntax I wrote didn't work (usually links, as in [https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Topic:Sfaxltcu5v4yqj1a&topic_showPostId=sfi4gfccdkct575u#flow-post-sfi4gfccdkct575u this comment]).

Eh... in fact, the comment above is another example of what I just said. I know the wikitext syntax, I typed it correctly, it should just work without requiring me to fix VE changes which added nowiki tags to my comment.

Another example, where I tried to just paste the phab:link inside a double pair of brakets which I typed: https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Topic:Sgo3wuoyh9qjkjda&topic_showPostId=sgoiqa64hpm5dvwn#flow-post-sgoiqa64hpm5dvwn

The wikitext editor is the default at some other projects.

Quiddity, is the editing environment in Flow going to get a 'sticky' pref any time soon? It should either be what I tell it to use as the default, or it should be whatever I finished in last time.

Except if last time I used the previewVisualEditor to see what my message would look like, and then just clicked on reply before going back to wikitext...

See phab:T94956 ("VE on Flow: Don't change sticky preference if user just switches to VE for a preview") which should cover both the original issue, and then aspect that He7d3r mentions. :)

(Aside: I've changed the title from "bidirectional" to "back and forth editing". "Bidirectional editing" has a different meaning regarding bidirectional text, and I thought the topic was about that.)